Upgrade Steering and Suspensions Parts

[SummitUp]

Those Moog Tie Rods don't look any beefier than OEM TR's.



If you do any amount of serious off-roading you might want to upgrade to something like <THESE>.

Originally Posted by tomp

You will want to add the cognito limiting straps to go with those control arms and shocks as this setup will cause front arms to hang on upper ball joint rather than the shock as the limiter, which casues premature ball joint failure. straps will cure it

Tom, good to see you over here! Thanks for the reminder on the straps, I really need to get a pair of those. I've been lucky so far, been wheeling with the Cognito UCA's for quite a while now, but the ball joints don't seem to have suffered any.

[tomp]

Good advice on the TRs Summit! Moog makes good stuff but those TRs look weak like OEM.

Even highway miles will wear those ball joints early without the straps. Of course mines a daily driver so I see the early failures more than most and Im running their uniballs.

[citiboy]

Summit, i went with the Moog tie-rods because of one thing....these will act as a fusible links on the steering. If i install a stronger tie-rods, something will give down the line. It's easier to replace the tie-rods especially on the trails. Recently, i busted my RF inner half-shaft....luckily a friend of mine had a spare and i replaced it on the trail....imagine if the half-shaft didn't give, the next in-line is the diffirential. I replaced it with Cardone Select and i never had any problem yet.

Thanks for the suggestions though .

[tomp]

If Summit adhered the the Fusable Link principal, he wouldnt last 5 minutes on the trails he wheels on. The H2 tie rods are severely under sized compared to the strength of the rest of the steering components. In fact, you can buy the strongest tie rods you can find an they will still be the first thing to give out. As far as the front diff goes, all of diffs I have heard of breaking had OEM shafts and I have yet to hear of an H2 front diff give out on the trail. Maybe some have & I haven't heard of it. All of the ones I have heard about have been on the street. The later model H2 front diffs 04+ have proven to Hold up very well. So well that I plan to install the Unbreakable RCV shafts. The reason the OEM and Cardone shafts break easily is because the outer metal housing is softer than the hardened ball bearings. This causes the bearing to peen the housing with small indentions over time. You never know what will cause them to break, might be something rediculous when they let go.

[citiboy]

Well, got a 45min. spare time and installed rear shocks and stab links...only thing that bother me are the grease fitting on the links....hopefully rocks wont shear them.

[citiboy]

tomp, thanks for the great info as always, for now, i'll see if this TR would hold for the type of trails we do here....i actually almost bought the DMAX rods.

We have one H2 front diff grenade on the trail and his oem half-shaft we're perfectly OK. Don't know how what happened though.

[pdxrealtor]

I peeked under the truck and yes, my bushings are welded also.

[SummitUp]

Originally Posted by citiboy

Summit, i went with the Moog tie-rods because of one thing....these will act as a fusible links on the steering. If i install a stronger tie-rods, something will give down the line. It's easier to replace the tie-rods especially on the trails.

As Tomp said, you can buy the strongest tie rods you can find and they still will be the first thing to give out, as there really is "nothing down the line" that will give way before even the strongest TR does. Sure it's easy to replace the TR's on the trail, but it's still no fun and you will be doing that more often than you like!

Here a video of our friend Alec losing a tie rod on a very easy trail here in Colorado, shows how easy it is to break an OEM style TR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxrdwXXat14

Originally Posted by citiboy

Recently, i busted my RF inner half-shaft....luckily a friend of mine had a spare and i replaced it on the trail....imagine if the half-shaft didn't give, the next in-line is the diffirential. I replaced it with Cardone Select and i never had any problem yet.

.
Oh yeah, I've been there, done that. Last time was in Moab, and guess what? The half shaft I grenaded was a Cardone Select! Nothing is bullet proof, and IMO the Cardones are no stronger than OEM's.

[citiboy]

Summit, i always thought about the weakest link in the system, easier and cheaper when it need replacements. You and tomp really changing how i viewed this especially with our trucks. I only install the Cardone Select because it's cheaper than oem and i read somewhere that it was a good choice for cranked tb keys to prevent vibrations above 70mph.

On the other hand, did you ever fix or are you still having issues on the cognito steering support bracket, i found your thread on the other forum. I hope that i won't have any rubbing issues after i've install mine.

I'm all open to suggestions especially from you guys that knows H2 more than me and more experienced off-roaders. I think this is we're a good forum shines. Hat's off to you both.

Keep 'em comin'

[tomp]

That was likely me that reported cardones have less vibration with cranked TBs above 70mph. It was very clear they are smoother when cranked.

[citiboy]

Originally Posted by tomp

That was likely me that reported cardones have less vibration with cranked TBs above 70mph. It was very clear they are smoother when cranked.

Maybe that's why i never have vibrations at highway speeds.

Did you ever have problems or replaced your torsion key support bracket bushings?

[SummitUp]

Originally Posted by citiboy

Summit, i always thought about the weakest link in the system, easier and cheaper when it need replacements. You and tomp really changing how i viewed this especially with our trucks. I only install the Cardone Select because it's cheaper than oem and i read somewhere that it was a good choice for cranked tb keys to prevent vibrations above 70mph.

On the other hand, did you ever fix or are you still having issues on the cognito steering support bracket, i found your thread on the other forum. I hope that i won't have any rubbing issues after i've install mine.

I'm all open to suggestions especially from you guys that knows H2 more than me and more experienced off-roaders. I think this is we're a good forum shines. Hat's off to you both.

Keep 'em comin'

Citiboy, I assume the thread your referring to was on the H-u-m-m-e-r-X forum? <LINK>

I started the Same Thread here on Elcova as well (and I see the photos that I linked from the H-u-m-m-e-r-X site don't show anymore. Elcova has since instigated a policy of not allowing links to other Hummer sites, total BS if you ask me, but as you see from the link above there are ways around this!). The problem your referring to was not seen by everyone, and we finally concluded that the reason for it was that there were differences in the actual castings of the steering knuckles (and perhaps LCA's) due to different production runs from different subs who provided the parts to GM. This also explained why some had rubbing issues with 37" tires and some did not.

At any rate at that time I solved the problem (for myself at least) with the modification of adjustable turn limit bump stops. But this is all moot for me at this point as I have replaced all the OEM steering components with a custom Hydro-Assist steering upgrade.

[tomp]

Originally Posted by SummitUp

I have replaced all the OEM steering components with a custom Hydro-Assist steering upgrade.

...of which we are still awaiting pics